Information Management and the Administration of Justice

• Author: Mario Cuomo
• DOI: 10.1177/088740348600100103
• Published date: 01 January 1986
• Date: 01 January 1986
• Subject Matter: Articles

1

Information

Management

and

the

Administration

of

Justice

Mario

Cuomo

Governor,

State

of

New

York

CJPR,

VOL.

1

NO. 1,

1/86,

pp.

1-15

@njp

While

the

importance

of

accurate,

complete,

and

timely

informa-

tion

to

the

administration

of

justice

cannot

be

disputed,

outmoded

information

systems

and

inadequate

crime

and

criminal

justice

data

have

only

rarely

generated

concern

among

public

officials.

The

press-

ing

problems

of

criminal

justice

policy

makers

in

the

mid-1980s

are

issues

such

as

prison

and

jail

overcrowding,

the

police

use

of

deadly

force,

services

for

victims

of

crime,

and

sentencing

policies.

The

di-

rect

and

indirect

ties

between

these

problems

and

the

quality

of

crimi-

nal

justice

information

systems

are

not

always

evident.

Yet

information

is

the

lifeblood

of

the

administration

of

justice.

Executive

and

legislative

policy

makers

are

beginning

to

recognize

the

many

ties

between

criminal

justice

administration

and

informa-

tion

management.

In

recent

years,

the

strengthening

of

information

systems

has

emerged

as

a

strategy

to

improve

the

operation

of

the

criminal

justice

system.

Common

sense

suggests

that

the

availability

of

more

accurate

and

complete

information

when

making

bail

or

pa-

role

release

decisions

will

improve

the

quality

of

these

decisions.

Policy

makers

also

know

that

the

successfulness

of

criminal

justice

program

initiatives

may

hinge

on

the

availability

of

data.

Many

alter-

natives

to

incarceration

programs,

for

example,

rely

on

data

gathered

in

presentence

investigations

to

identify

the

offenders

who

are

not

threats

to

the

community.

Conversely,

selective

incapacitation

initia-

tives

depend

on

computerized

criminal

history

records

to

isolate

the

career

criminals.

Flowing

from

its

recognition

of

the

importance

of

information

to

the

administration

of

justice,

New

York

State

has

engaged

in

a

major

overhaul

of

its

criminal

justice

information

systems.

The

underlying

premise

of

this

project

is

that

improved

information

management

will

enhance

the

administration

of

justice.

In

addition

to

providing

better

information

for

the

day-to-day

operational

and

resource

allocation

decisions

in

the

criminal

justice

system,

the

information

systems

im-